The Best Way to Clean Medals

Whether you have earned a medal or it has been passed down to you from previous generations, you will want to know how to clean it. Due to the natural reaction of various metals and oxygen, your medals will appear to lose their shine and colour. When cleaning metal medals, it is important to use the proper cleaning technique to preserve the quality of the medal and keep it in shining form.

Skill level:

Moderate

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Things you need

Tweezers

Acetone

Bowl

Cotton balls

Soft toothbrush

Silver foam

Brass polish

Clean rag

Gloves

Methylated spirits

Metal lacquer

Wire

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Instructions

1

Put your gloves on.

2

Remove the medal from the ribbon by removing the stitching with small tweezers.

3

Pour a small amount of acetone in a bowl. Dip the medal into the acetone and wipe clean with a cotton ball. Remove any dirt by using a soft-bristled toothbrush. Ensure that the toothbrush does not scratch the surface by working slowly and only removing impurities that you can see with your eye.

4

Use a brass polish for brass or copper medals and a silver foam for silver or plate medals. Polish the medals to remove any dirt by using a small amount of polish and a clean rag. Remove polish from the medal by using a small amount of water and a clean rag.

5

Pour a small amount of methylated spirits into a bowl. Dip your medal into the bowl, remove it and use a cotton ball to dab off any remaining spirits.

6

Use metal lacquer which you can purchase at your local hardware store. Use a piece of wire to suspend the medal so that your gloves do not come into contact with the metal surface. Use the wire to lower the medal into the lacquer. Slowly remove the medal from the lacquer and hang where it cannot come into contact with anything.

7

Allow the medal to rest for at least 24 hours and ensure the lacquer has dried fully before touching. Reapply the lacquer if there are rainbow stripes on the surface by removing the coating with acetone and dipping the medal again. Do not reclean the medal to reapply lacquer.